elkhorn falls

I have to apologize right away, as I had to do with last week's guests.  The pleasant surprise did not come through.  It will though!  I puh-ROM-ise you!  And when it does you will definitely know about it.

And since I couldn't blog about that.  I just took a bunch of pictures from our long ride to Elkhorn Falls (Remember this? If you don't, it's worth reading.  It's probably the the climax of this blog.)  I just want you to know I made the trip successfully this time and got home on time to boot!  

Enjoy!

Things are still really green here, since it hasn't gotten hot enough to dry everything out.  And this meadow was just beautiful on a June day.

This is Shy Girl, our cook's wife, riding Wynona, who didn't want to stand still for her picture.  

These are some wild columbines, the state flower of Colorado, in a shady spot with just a hint of sun peeking through.

And alas, Elkhorn Falls, which actually sounded and looked like a real waterfall this year.  Last year, I didn't go until later in the season and I thought they should have named it Elkhorn TRICKLE!

 

It's quite the peaceful place, where one can take a nap after a long ride.

And strip off all their cowboy (or girl) apparel.

Give their feet a good, cold, and I do mean snow-melt cold, soak.

Or just gaze out upon the falls.

I'd like to thank my guest Dawn for being so picturesque that day!  And I hope you all enjoyed the trip to Elkhorn Falls!

dropping like flies

Things have been just as interesting this year as they were last year.  We have already lost two of our comrades, a cook and a wrangler.  They left as quickly as they came.

But that being said, I think we're settling into our staff.  And I'm hoping to introduce you to all of them.  I just have to get pictures.  But before we do that....I'm hoping to have a pleasant surprise for you.  Check back within the next day or so!

Don't you hate that I post just to get you interested?

Oz

This is Oz.  As you may or may not have guessed by his name, he is from Australia.  And he is our housekeeper.  You don't even know much it delights me to know that our housekeeper is male.  Although, that means he gets pulled to maintenance a lot.  But he'd better not get out of it on a Saturday...that's our main housekeeping day.

Anyhow, that's unimportant.  Let's talk about Oz.  

Oz is a pretty darn cool guy.  He did let me take this picture of him under a pig's tail, after all!  And he is a male housekeeper, let's not forget that point.

Anyhow, let me tell you a little story about this hat.  As you may or may not be able to tell, this hat is sort of painted camouflage.  It's really wonky - bent all out of shape.  Let's just say it's got character.  As you can see the side of it bends up sort of like a traditional Australian hat.  So one day I asked him if he brought the hat from home, thinking he had some good stories behind it being so banged up, as cowboys tend to do.  No, he replies.  So I gently prod some more (as gently as I could ever prod) to find out why he is wearing such a hat.  I ask if he got it on his trip to the East Coast (more about that in a minute) - no, he found it here.  

He found it here?  Now let me just tell you, we have hats here!  We have tons of hats here!  And none so awful as this hat.  So I continue to prod, "Why didn't you pick a better hat?"  His answer?  First, let me just note that he was the first male here.  "I figured if I picked the ugliest hat no one would swipe it."  

Now how is that for reasoning???

If you're wondering what he's doing here, he just graduated from college, where he studied mechanical engineering and is taking some time off before joining the real world.  That mechanical side of him, I might add, has already come in quite handy for us and our machinery!

Speaking of machinery, I think he might have found his calling in life.

We put him on that tractor and the man just went.  And went.  And went.  It was kinda like Forrest Gump.  Only scraping manure, instead of running...

He plowed that manure until we told him he had to get off.  And begged to do it again the next day.  What can you say?  When you love something, you just really love it.

As I mentioned, he took a trip to the East Coast, kinda.  When he got to the US, he bought himself a little 70s Honda motorcycle, which wasn't running very well when he showed up at the ranch.  He tinkered with it a bit the next morning and took off for one of the Carolinas.  Apparently, he made it as far as Mississippi (I know, I asked him if he had a map...), where his motorcycle broke down.  He got a good taste of good ole southern hospitality.  The people he met were very kind hearted, took him in, fed him, gave him a place to stay, bought his motorcycle, took him touring, and then took him to the airport so he could make it back here in time for work.  I tell ya, some people gots them some goooooood karma!

Now, as good of a guy as Oz is, he does have his flaws.  I walked out about a month ago to find this.

Yes, Oz had made friends with Selene, the devil goat.  And not only that.  He was feeding her!

He was encouraging all of her bad behavior.  And worse, saying she was a nice goat!  Thankfully, she is gone now and I don't have to keep my on him any more.  At least in regards to her.

All in all, he's a pretty good dude and I can practice my Aussie accent on him.  I know he enjoys it.  He has to.  Because I said so.

And now you've met our male housekeeper.  Next up, our cook.  You're gonna love him!

the art of racing in the rain

I've been gone a long time.  I started to give you a meet 'n greet, then didn't have all the pictures I needed.  Got the pictures, didn't have time to upload them.  Tutored for 5 and a half hours after a 9 hour day at the ranch, not to mention the hour and a half drive round trip.  Was exhausted.  Spent the next day in town running errands.  Worked on Saturday, then went to Taste of Fort Collins to watch my cousin's band, Fierce Bad Rabbit, play.  Continued to be exhausted.  Tried to take care of personal stuff, like dealing with insurance, tenants, etc. on Sunday morning before going back to work.  Dealt with my exhaustion last night with a book.

I find there nothing to be more relaxing than settling in with a good book.  Especially when it's cold, cloudy, and rainy.  And apparently that was exactly what the doctor ordered.

Last week's guests are some of my favorite investors.  They live in Ft. Collins and have a cabin in Red Feather, so they pass the ranch all the time.  And don't mind lending us books.  And lend us GOOD books.

The book I started, and am already half-way through, is The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein.  My cousin and my sister have already read and both thought it was pretty good.  Depending on your speed of reading, I think it can be done somewhere between 2 1/2 (she's a fast reader) and 10 hours.  I'm guessing it will take me about 6.

While it is a really easy read with big print, it's not a kid's book.  There is some cussing, some discussion of adult behavior from the perspective of a dog, and so far, not much violence.  I'd say mostly the sexual stuff, but considering what's on TV these days....

The book is written, as previously mentioned, from a dog's perspective.  It starts out with him being old and then he goes back and starts the family's story using his life as the timeline.  I will warn you, you may need kleenex to get through it.

So far, it's an awesome book. And may have something to do with why I haven't written on here.

Now go!  Read!  Be merry!

first time saddling

This is my baby.  Ok, so maybe she's Georgia's (yes, she's back!) and my baby.  And technically her name is Rose Blossom, but I just call her baby.

We decided since she turned two in February and we've ground worked her to death, that she was finally ready to be saddled.  Yes, she is still very small, but her mama was a pony.

In fact, this is her mama right here and as you can see, they are about the same height.  Baby just has a little more filling out to do.

Georgia and I did this together since she's the one who got her to stop kicking at people and taught her to lead and I taught her a few more things once Georgia was gone for the winter.

The first step is the blanket, which can be kind of scary, so Georgia sort of rubbed it all over her.

The next layer was the saddle pad.

And finally...

The saddle!

She had to check it out and see what it was all about.  But she really stood still the whole time, which was AWESOME!

We decided to leave all the extras on the saddle because she doesn't know any differently and I figure she needs to be used to those saddlebags anyhow.

I walked her around to get her used to the stirrups and saddlebags bouncing against her sides before I let her loose.

Now, I don't have any pictures of her trotting around loosely because Isobel took a video, which I will try to post the next time I'm at Dow's house.  (We only have so much bandwidth at the ranch and video uploads take too much.)

But, I have to say this.  She went one direction trotting and it didn't bother her a bit.  Going the other direction, she pushed herself into a lope (the speed after jogging/trotting, but before running) and it did get to her a little bit.  She gave a little rear/buck a few times, but quit when she realized it wasn't coming off.  And having seen her really go at it in the corral, her bucks were nothing.

I was SOOOOOO proud of her!

Next step?  Getting ON!  Stay tuned!

horses can be disturbing

It's true.  Horses can be disturbing.  And if you are easily grossed out or just don't have the same sense of humor I do (you're probably not still reading this if you don't), then I suggest you stop here.  Do NOT scroll.  And check back in a couple of days.  Just to make sure I've got a new post.

Anyhow, just to make sure things are scrolling far enough.  I want you to know that Dow can be disturbing, too.

He has really embraced this "shorts" thing, but he hasn't quite let go of the boots and socks.  Especially the socks.  Especially the socks that come up right underneath your knees...with shorts.  I told you.  Humans can be disturbing, too.

But that's not what this post is about.  This post is about horses.  And how they can really gross you out.

This looks like a nice innocent picture of Dow giving Bimbo (yes, her real name) a bath.

But it's not.

I told you it was gross!  She and China (said Cheena) ran through the barbed wire fence to get to the neighbor's horses.  

China's isn't quite as bad, but it's still pretty gross.

Luckily a different neighbor came over and stitched them right up!

Now on to other disturbing pictures of horses.....

Wynona is in heat.  And Clyde, thinking he is a stud, is obliging her.

Normal people would only post one picture of this, but then again, I guess I'm not normal people.  And truth be told, I separated them for a while, so I didn't have to watch.  And I didn't take pictures at first.  But Clyde wouldn't stop, so I threatened to take pictures and post them on the internet.  It apparently still didn't phase him.

So there you have it.  The most disturbing pictures I've ever posted of horses.  We now return to our regularly scheduled program.  

Please come back soon.  I promise the next post will be sweet and make you say, "aaahhhh...".